This is a collection of articles dealing with organic gardening, ecology, environmental restoration, news items of interest, travel and just about anything else I find of interest and willing to share with others around the globe. - ENJOY!

Friday, March 31, 2017

"A couple on the run are confronted by the forbidding sight of a giant wall dividing the US and Mexico. It’s the creation of British director-producer Gareth Edwards, who was also responsible for the impressive visual effects in his 2010 sci-fi film, Monsters." BBC ARTS

Image by BBC from the film - "Monster"

Image from William Graham

The Sci-Fi film's plot begins after a NASA deep-space probe (sent to verify the existence of extraterrestrial life within the solar system) crash lands in Mexico, then extraterrestrial life forms from some sort of seeds or spores, only to spread throughout the country of Mexico and along the United States border region, leading to a major emergency quarantine of the northern half of Mexico. Both USA and Mexican troops battle to contain the creatures, and a huge wall stretching along the border supposedly to keep the USA protected from the invading infection. Except the gigantic border wall doesn't really keep the alien monsters out. The BBC posted a video and posed the question,Did sci-fi film Monsters inspire Donald Trump’s Mexican wall? , but that's anyone's speculative guess. This border wall topic is a heated debate subject debate right now. The film's gargantuant wall is clearly an impossible realistic feat, but like the fictional Sci-Fi film's wall, nothing will totally keep out any humans who live life in our world's desperately poorer countries. But such a barrier has also exposed other negative consequences, migrating wildlife as seen in the photograph offered by Biologist William Graham in a recent post. Obviously it's a major barrier to the larger creatures like Deer, Pronghorn Antelope, Javelina, Jaguars, Coatimundi, Mexican Grey Wolves, etc. You can read Bill's recent post: (HERE)

Image Wikipedia - Edward Abbey

Image Wikipedia

But now how would the iconic ecowarrior, Edward Abbey, feel about a border wall to keep other humans out of his beloved southwest ? He coined the phrase in one of his books which used the term, "Monkey Wrenching," which has been influential in inspiring most of the modern day eco-activism movements to employ a tactic of sabotage and destruction of construction equipment, or any other type of sabotage, civil disobedience activism, or other law-breaking to justify preserving wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems. To be honest it's hard to say what direction he would take. He wasn't exactly happy about the effect of industrial nations increasing their population of more human beings (irrespective of race or ethnic origin) which he considered the most major threat to our planet Earth. This too has inspired a radical scientific movement lately of human beings not being exceptional and the need to find ways of reducing the population of even more human beings who are viewed as the problem. Humans are viewed as the enemy of Earth. Of course eco-activists generally do not consider themselves as part of that problem.Actually eco-activism is also equally at fault for Earth ruin. But what were Edward Abbey's thoughts on either legal or illegal immigration ???

"It occurs to some of us that perhaps ever-continuing industrial and population growth is not the true road to human happiness, that simple gross quantitative increase of this kind creates only more pain, dislocation, confusion and misery. In which case it might be wise for us as American citizens to consider calling a halt to the mass influx of even more millions of hungry, ignorant, unskilled, and culturally-morally-genetically impoverished people. At least until we have brought our own affairs into order. Especially when these uninvited millions bring with them an alien mode of life which—let us be honest about this—is not appealing to the majority of Americans. Why not? Because we prefer democratic government, for one thing; because we still hope for an open, spacious, uncrowded, and beautiful—yes, beautiful!—society, for another. The alternative, in the squalor, cruelty, and corruption of Latin America, is plain for all to see."

That's not exactly consistent with the newer enlightened ideological view many of today's eco-activists hold to lately. While they often will side with bashing humankind in general and blaming them for a ruined planet, this siding with border immigration (legal or illegal) has more to do with acquiring a new strategic ideological tool so as to prove whose side has the imaginary moral high ground. In any case, what's very interesting about the environmental folks who like reading Edward Abbey writings is that you can often find them constantly apologizing for many of his views on various subjects. He did have a rough and crusty manner about him, but at least he was consistent in his beliefs and sometimes even the natural world didn't escape his harsh views.

"Like that other typical desert plant the tumbleweed, tamarisk is not native to the American west. It comes from North Africa, and as is the way with other exotics, has spread like a plague. Clogging Desert water courses and driving out the willow, the cottonwood, the hackberry and the boxelder"

I actually agree with these sentiments, but rather than blame the Tamarisk, the true blame is placed squarely on human ignorance and stupidity. Edward Abbey always seemed to be championing things being native and pristine. But he was also fond of the word "wilderness" to describe beautiful untouched landscape where no other humans were. Abbey himself seemed to be a bit of a loner and so I guess the idea of wilderness was appealing. But wilderness really is a white European concept. The Native Americans never really viewed the land as wild, but rather their home. They made their living off it. It's hard to really say for sure whether or not Abbey would change his tough opinion about the present debate on a border wall. He'd be conflicted between his dislike of legal or illegal immigration, exotic non-native wild things and love for the native ecosystems of the west. Being a loner, I don't think the type of human would really matter in the end. Even still, he may well have had leanings towards some type of scientific eugenics program or government sponsored population control. An early indication of his feelings on the matter came in 1963, where he summed up his feelings this way:

"According to the morning newspaper, the population of America will reach 267 million by 2000 AD. An increase of forty million, or about one-sixth, in only seventeen years! And the racial composition of the population will also change considerably: the white birth rate is about sixty per thousand females, the Negro rate eighty-three per thousand, and the Hispanic rate ninety-six per thousand.

Am I a racist? I guess I am. I certainly do not wish to live in a society dominated by blacks, or Mexicans, or Orientals. Look at Africa, at Mexico, at Asia.

Garrett Hardin [the author of Tragedy of the Commons] compares our situation to an overcrowded lifeboat in a sea of drowning bodies. If we take more aboard, the boat will be swamped and we’ll all go under. Militarize our borders. The lifeboat is listing."

Wow, but those were his own words and feelings at the time. This was the time of civil rights movements in 1963. Most of the radical environmental organizations who use his anarchist views on monkeywrenching as a sort of handbook for strategic ecoactivist success generally gloss over or hide completely these types of his other views. To be fair, even during the early slave trade thru the Social Darinism days, Christendom's Churches were in full support of 1800s Imperialistic ambitions for whatever conquering European nation they were citizens of back then. In the end, a lack of borderwall won't save Nature. Nature has been in trouble long before this controversy. But it's a tool now being used by one ideology attempting to score points over another. Same is true if there is a borderwall with strict regulations on immigration, people will still move into all industrial countries (whether USA or European Union) no matter what, believing the marketing propaganda that the grass is greener there than back in their previous homeland. They basically are placing their hopes on nothing more than that marketed iconic dream and neither political ideology really has anything of value yo offer them. They'll be equally exploited by both sides when it's all said and done.

Below are some interesting musings about both people and wildlife along the USA-Mexico Borderlands if you're really interested & their web links

Friday, March 24, 2017

We've come a long way from the days of old (1960s counter-culture protesters) where people claimed to be championing peaceful protests movements for the cause of peace and ecology. But today, one cannot flip on the TV News without seeing some type of violent protest somewhere in the world over anything. For the moment, much of it seems motivated by murderous hatred towards someone else's version of ideological worldview. The official 'cause' being protested is often used as a mask to cloak it's truer darker identity. This post is not a commentary on all the reasons for the present insanity of civil unrest which is now consuming our planet. Since this blog is mostly about our planet's natural world and positive ways of rebuilding ecosystems, urban landscaping, travel, etc, I'll focus mainly on why the environmental movement today fails to change the hearts of their perceived opponents. In general it's a problem resulting from the methods they have chosen to get their message across. I never endorse one environmental cause or group over another and there is a big reason for that. Without saying very much as to why, I'll let these photographs below tell the story. Most of these movements generally have no real viable solution for replacing the present miserable system that they are protesting against other than some casual vague references to wind or solar power coupled some new brand of political socialism. But these too have their own unique failings regarding harm to the environment. Quite often I've found that many of the protesters have very little experience if any of actual participation in any ecosystem restoration project. See my previous post on that subject (HERE) Many of the environmental organizations and the donations they receive go towards lawsuits, protests and monetary settlements with very little of those funds actually going towards actually fixing an ecosystem through hands on restoration work even on the part of the non-profit's officers. There is no question that this planet needs radical change & in a hurry. Take a look at these pictures below that bare out the reality of this fact.

Image - MarketWatch.com

Leading Faces of Industrial Agriculture

Source - EcoWatch

Ocean Dead Zones via Industrial Ag

Photo - Free SourceFracking Operation, Pinedale, Wyoming

Image - JamesWorks.ca

Canadian Tar Sands - before & after

Source: Andreas Habich, Wikimedia Commons.

Steel industries in Benxi, China

Yup, sure enough the planet's in trouble. No argument there. No need for us to explain what these photographs are all about since we are already aware of their implications. But have these green activist movements & people involved with them actually been stellar examples of lifestyle choices and conduct have recommended to other people that their way is a better way of life without saying a word ? Let's look at a recent well known public protest movement example that's been highlighted in the News Reports for almost a year now. That would be the oil pipeline protests in South Dakota, otherwise known as the Standing Rock Pipeline Protest. The Native Americans there started the protest and I believe they were at the beginning very sincere and legitimate in their reasons for protesting. But the big problems came later when outside protesters came on board. Take a look below.

Image - Reuters - T. Sylvester

All over the country this cause suddenly became a rallying cry for outsiders with other axes to grind to come and add their anarchy which was not what the Native American Souix wanted in the first place. Many of the outsiders did not fully understanding nor comprehend the particular issues involved on the part of both sides of the argument. Many came simply for what they say was the cultural experience. What it became however angered most of those Native Americans. And who can blame them. Apparently of the tribal members described how the protest became as a kind of repugnant "Burning Man Festival" complete with drugs, booze, loud music and unbridled decadant behaviour. Others likened it to another annual event,"The Rainbow Gathering" which has been held annually since 1972 for which people supposedly celebrate a shared ideology of peace, harmony, freedom, and respect. Except that is not how it usually goes down. Anyway, here were some expressions of concern and disgust relayed by some of the Native Americans about the counter-culture outsiders who invited themselves and crashed their party:

"White people are colonizing the camps. I mean that seriously. Plymouth rock seriously. They are coming in, taking food, clothing and occupying space without any desire to participate in camp maintenance and without respect of tribal protocols.

"These people are treating it like it is Burning Man or The Rainbow Gathering and I even witnessed several wandering in and out of camps comparing it to those festivals."

With the infamous anti-pipeline protest camps now reduced to a muddy pile of garbage, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will now be coming to grips with some of the harsh realities of their month’s long crusade against the Dakota Access Pipeline. A letter sent from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Chase Iron Eyes – a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and anti-Dakota Access protest camp, details the the environmental damage done by protesters.

Above is an aerial view of the protest camp on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land at the confluence of the Missouri River and Cannonball River in southern Morton County North Dakota on February 13, 2017. The area is in a flood plain and must be cleared of buildings and people who have been illegally camping to protest the nearby Dakota Access Pipeline. Left behind is all manner of filth and other trash. Conditions in the camp were described as a cesspit of filth, which was the result of thousands of people camping in the middle of a field with little in the way of any responsible sanitation services. The authorities who eventually have to go into the camp have to first receive hazmat training. Prior to authorities entering the camp, the protesters have set fires to many structures with hazardous materials. The Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II, who is led the protest, raised his concerns about sanitation back on Nov. 23, 2016, saying activists are “digging pits out there for their human waste.”

“That’s a flood zone. So when the floodwaters come up, that waste is going to be contaminating the water. We’re no different than the oil company, if we’re fighting for water. What’s going to happen when people leave? Who has to clean it up? Who has to refurbish it? It’s going to be us, the people who live here.”

“Before this entire movement started, that was some of the most beautiful land around. There was a place down there where eagles, over 100 eagles, would come and land. There were game down there — deer, pheasants, elk, geese. Now it’s occupied by people. And when masses of people come to one place, we don’t take care of it.”

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault

The Bismark Tribune

Unbelievably, over two hundred vehicles were left abandoned by these people. Numerous dangerous illegal structures were built and the human waste itself created an incredible biohazard of it's own:

“There are roughly 200 vehicles down there at last count, ranging from cars and pickups to rental trucks. We’re going to have a very drastic situation trying to keep these vehicles from getting into the river – what everybody’s been trying to protect from day one. We can’t leave them there. We don’t know what kind of biohazard is going to be produced with all the fluids or any other garbage that’s inside the vehicle,”

George Kuntz, Vice President, North Dakota Towing Association

They now have to go in there with heavy equipment and bring all those vehicles back to the hard roadway to be loaded. It's a boggy floodplain and some vehicles are already in the river that they supposedly were trying to save. This site was prior to the protesters occupation of it was a sensitive wildlife habitat where no one lived.

“You’ve got oil leaking out, you’ve got gas. Pollution from abandoned vehicles adds to already serious environmental problems left behind by the protestors. You talk about wanting to protect the water, and yet not a lot of people are staying around to clean up what they started. How do you just totally destroy something? How do you not care about something that you are here saying that you care about? Most of the damage was caused by the out-of-state protestors who were recruited by national activist groups."

Robert Keller, Public Information Officer, Morton County Sheriffs Department

You folks can google anything else on the subject. The area was a sensitive environmental wildlife have prior to this protest. Not anymore. The very ecological destruction these angry anarchists were claiming to stop they actually directly caused first hand.

Below here is the aftermath of the first of it's kind rock festival called Woodstock Festival for peace, Music and Ecology back in Bethel, New York (Aug 1969)

Image - Woodstock 1969

Back in 1972, my World History and Civics teacher, Mr LeTourneau at El Cajon Valley High School, said something that rang true then and shines glaringly true today. We were discussing all the radical protests movements of the late 1960s on into those early 1970s and the subject came up about ecology protest movements from all those peace loving back to nature Flower Children. He showed us a photo of the 1969 Woodstock Rock Festival's aftermath on that dairy farm's fields. Incredible amount of filth and human waste and he said, "I don't get it. These are supposed to be the ecology people?" He was right. In fact after almost any rock festival where this type of activist culture shows up, they all leave behind an incredible amount of human filth. Go ahead, google any of those well know past events. There are clear similarities between the Woodstock Festival and the Dakota Pipeline Protest Camp. Both had the same decadent behaviour at both events. Drugs, alcohol, load music, foul vulgar speech and disgusting conduct. The big question is, how can Nature inspire many of these people to display such filthy speech, vulgar insults, decadent behaviour, foul language, blantant destruction of other individual's private property, various forms of drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual assault, etc ? This is supposed to be all about Nature right ? Anybody else seeing the social structure humans picking up pace and going down hill ? There is one long forgotten biblical text, even forgotten by most who claim to even believe in their holy book which outstandingly describes a time of where human society is heading by the display of certain negative personality traits which reach their climax worst just before the end. Could that time really be now ?

"But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having an appearance of godliness but proving false to its power; and from these turn away."

Let's analyze this, "not open to any agreement" (translation = 'my way or the highway'), "without self-control" (let's party), "lovers of themselves" (lack of consideration for other people; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure), "Fierce" (must be what the fist in the air thing is all about), "puffed up with pride" (incapable of admitting one's position may be wrong), "headstrong" (determined to have one's own way at any cost), etc, etc, etc. Now, can anyone tell me if any of these photographs I'm posing below of how our natural world could really inspire the abnormal degenerate behaviour we saw and read about in the pictures & News links above ???

Image - Jenna Edde Wilf Open Country

Image - Simple Snapshots - Nate 2010

Image Panoramio - Uğur Atabaş 2016

Image - Mark Goudy & Lisa Riddle - Thunder Cloud Studios 2008

Amazing Engineering Inspires Biomimicry

Image - Harun Hahya

Image - Harun Hahya

Image - Uzma Khan

Image: Jay Beiler

Spring wildflowers - Cahuilla Indian Reservation Anza CA

Funny Cute Critter Photographs

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How can people who claim to be environmental activists and on the side of everything ecogreen even look at such photos and find inspiration to engage in foul vulgar speech, decadent behaviour, destroy someone else's property, defecate on a police car, etc, etc, etc, etc ? The reality is that such Nature Snapshots should inspire behavioural conduct as encouraged by another long forgotten text in which even the traditionally religious have forgotten.

"On the other hand, the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control. Against such things there is no law."

So one now has to wonder, what happened ? Apparently the Native American effort to spotlight Ecology & Nature has clearly failed since the oil is going to flow anyway. The area of the protest encampment was at one time an ecologically sensitive wildlife habitat. Now it's an environmental catastrophe ruined by ideologically driven party animals claiming to be something they never were to begin with. Maybe the Native Americans will think twice next time about who they invite to the pow wow. People all around the globe are going to have to start questioning who and what organizations they are associating themselves with if they truly love Nature. While certainly many folks out there are sincere in their love for nature, most of the environmental movements have mutated into a kind of political ideology bent on destroying those of an opposing side they feel murderous hatred towards. They have used Nature & Science as a tool or crutch to lean on in justification of this hatred. Far from John Lennon's imaginary peaceful world vision, mankind is now far deeper into a cesspit of murderous hatred. Seriously folks, flick on all of the television New network stations & ponder where this world is headed. As for Science really being the answer for fixing all the wrong things ?

I'm all for ecology and Nature. I'm all for rebuilding and restoring the Earth back to a healthy balanced state. Both my blogs are dedicated towards that end. But I'm also fully understand that on a grand global wholesale scale right now this will never happen under the present human system of governance of this planet. So mostly I write to people out there on an individual level who work with small local restoration groups or just people with their own garden and urban landscape and want to make a personal difference. This post is an extention of my previous post last week on this same subject which deals with some of the stupid so-called scientific arguments which have actually contributed in a major way to more harm of Nature rather than actually helping our natural world 😏

The online 'Book of Bad Arguments' link above is an interesting read if you've got the time. It really illustrates just how twisted this world has become when it comes to people coming up with all sorts creative ways to justify a worldview. The lengths and idiocy to which some will argument is nothing but time wasting because it so often falls well short of reality. Today I watched a video posted by the California Native Plant Society's chapter of San Diego. It's an organization which is dedicated to the promotion of native California plants. But only Cal-Natives. That's kool, I love cal-native plants. But like so many organizations championing any kind of cause today, they are generally intolerant of any other types of ecosystem plants being introduced into the urban landscape within California. Okay, I get not wanting something to escape into the wild and becoming a terrible invasive problem, but not every exotic plant is going to be a problem plant. Well anyway, watch the video below, it's only about a couple of minutes.

I understand the benefits of planting natives to the area in attracting all manner of native wildlife to your landscape. My mum's yard has both natives and non-invasive non-native plants accompanying them which have similar environmental requirements. The various local wildlife (birds, insects, reptiles, animals, etc) also utilize them as well. We've never experienced any problems. But now take special note here of the lady said in this quote below:

"What if people said, 'We should just wait for the Monarchs to throw a random gene that will make their caterpillars be able to eat something other than Milkweed. I'm not willing to take that chance."

Seriously, a random mutated gene ??? Do people still think this way now ? Unbelievable, in this day and age with regards the increased study and understanding of genetics and the part of genetics called epigentics which in actual fact purposefully engineers incredibly ordered changes influenced by any number of stimuli from environmental cues as opposed to the past historical ignorant belief of copying errors caused by dumb luck doing wonderfuk things for no logical reason. Buy why would she use such unscientific nonsense terminology which started out decades ago as nothing more than some group minority's worldview ? Brilliant scientific research by dedicated serious scientists have long since proven this to be false. Nevertheless, such religious doctrinal dogmas diehard. This thinking is so ingrained into many folk's psyche as the result of early indoctrination at elementary school, that clearly many people later in life need to go through some type deprogramming therapy before being re-educated about how our natural world really works. The big question here is, how does one go about experimenting or testing for random mutations caused by dumb luck and expect to obtain any beneficial innovation by practical application to result ? You don't and that's why we experience a natural world various ecosystems that are completely unraveling before our very eyes because we have a Scientific Orthodoxy out there promoting nature as flawed, imperfect and badly designed and that only intellectual humans can fix those flaws. But insisting Bature is flawed only seems mask the gross imperfection of human ignorance on the subject about how our natural world really works. Take for example the world's biotechnology industry. Biotechs justify their existence and methods of technology because they say changes in life happen all the time by means of something called Horizontal Gene Transfer. Hence their transgenic manipulation of organisms is justified in their worldview because it happens in Nature. Except that leads to the assumption that their services really are needed or the world fails. Take the following example below of this subject, "Argument from Poor Design" which like Junk DNA, does nothing more than hide and sweep under the rug the scientific community's past ignorance and stupidity from decades past.GMO apologetics are based on this unscientific dogma, "Argument from Poor Design," which is exactly why these geneticists, biologists and other researchers employed by the various biotechnology companies confidently justify all their valuable time playing the gene manipulation game because in their corrupted view of the natural world, it's Nature that is flawed, poorly designed and only their collective credentialed genius can fix those glaring imperfections. The reality is, very few of these genetics engineers have any clue or understanding of how whole plant ecosystems actually function and maintain themselves out in the wild. Yet, in their worldview, Nature is flawed and their collective genius can provide the correction. Seriously ??? 😨 Take a look at this promotional advertisement below on Monsanto's work to gene manipulate crop plants to withstand the present and future global warming.

Advertisement - Monsanto

This is Monsanto's latest development of their infamous "Droughtgard Hybrid" crop seeds. They've informed the public that they only want to feed the world and there's this new problem that hinders this goal and it's called Global Warming. Okay, I understand that. But take a look again at their promotional advert above. They explain that in order to create drought resistant crops like maize or corn or soy, they need to acquire a special stress response gene for encoding cold shock protein B (cspB) from a soil bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, and then insert it into some corn variety's genome. It's also known as “RNA Chaperone” RNA Chaperone from Bacillus subtilis. Yet one wonders why they went to all that time and expense in developing such drought tolerance when Nature has already had these drought resistance tools for countless 1000s of years ? Research time is lengthy and expensive because the seed patenting most often runs into the millions of dollars for biotechs. The real problem is that these researchers are in charge of providing their corporations with a regular consumable product. That ensures an annual profit year after year. But these transgenic seeds are also engineered to work in conjunction with a plethora of other consumables like synthetic science-based fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, miticides, etc. This further ensures huge annual profits for their employers. Yet nature while complex, takes an easier road and is far more sustainable when left alone. Take the mycorrhizal experiment below by the University of Florida on drought resistance and heat stress with Corn. Here, nutrient and water uptake are improved between 200% to 800% depending on environmental soil conditions and drought tolerance is achieved in one single season, not decades of transgenic manipulation and cross breeding.

Image - Mycorrhizal Applications Inc

I have absolutely no problem with any kind of business venture researching, developing, manufacturing and selling a product for profit. But at least when a company like Mycorrhizal Applications Inc develops, manufactures and sells a product for profit, their product doesn't trash our planet. This reminds me of that discussion line of debate from a scene in the Sci-Fi film Jurassic Park. 😆

John Hammond: "All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!"

Dr. Ian Malcolm: "Yeah, but, John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists."

Oddly enough, most all of these biotechs know and understand that the microbial community within the soil is the most efficient and safest way to accomplish good farming, but until now have refused to admit this to the public just how dirty their formula for industrial farming really has been to our natural world. Interestingly, some are now attempting a public relations stunt to colour green their image as promoting thatthey were always on board with microbes all along, but they then spin how it may not have always looked that way at the beginning. It's all about smokescreen folks. The facts bare out that their version of worldview about nature being inept and flawed has brought incredible ruin to our planet through their industrial rose coloured vision of things. Now while many are now just starting to admit designs copied from nature really have brought incredible advancement, economical savings and enhanced ecological benefits, more has to be done in a hurry. Here are just three more examples of incredible design copying from Nature which has saved some industries millions of dollars and helped vastly improve the environment.

Airbus A380 winglets, inspired by the Steppe Eagle

During an Eagle's flight, the feathers on the tips of it's wings are practically verticle. This configuration gives maximum lift with minimum wing length. Engineers have studied such soaring birds such as eagles with a view of designing more efficient aircraft. The introduction of modified wing design that includes winglets has improved aircraft performance by as much as 15%. Planes can now fly farther and carry more passengers while saving fuel. In the decade following the introduction of up turned wing tips, airlines worldwide saved six thousand seven hundred million liters or two billion gallons of jet fuel. But the eagleäs amazing design is not limited to flight. As the eagle descends upon it's prey, it's eyes continuously adjust to maintain sharp focus throughout the approach. What man made camera ever comes close to this rapid refocus ?

Mercedes-Benz bionic car

"The concept models of the Mercedes-Benz bionic car are appearing as part of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which showcases innovations in the fields of design and science.

Bionic Car ConceptOne of the highlights of the exhibition is the Mercedes-Benz bionic car, which was first unveiled in June 2005 at the Innovation Symposium organized by Daimler AG in the US capital, Washington DC.

Engineers, designers and biologists at Mercedes-Benz worked hand in hand to develop the Mercedes-Benz bionic car. Its template was a sea dweller from tropical latitudes: Ostracion Cubicus – more commonly known as the boxfish.

Despite its unusual-looking shape, the fish is extremely aerodynamic and can therefore move using a minimal amount of energy. It is also able to withstand high pressures and, thanks to an outer skin consisting of hexagonal bone plates, can survive unscathed following collisions with corals or other sea dwellers."

"The Shinkansen Bullet Train which belongs to the West Japan Railway Company is the fastest train in the world which can travel up to 200 miles per hour.

While they were designing the bullet train, they had a massive problem. The train was very noisy. Every time the train came out from the tunnel, the air pressure changed which resulted in large thunder claps. This noise caused residents a quarter of a mile away to complain.

The train’s chief engineer and a keen bird-watcher turned to nature to see if they could find something travels quickly and smoothly between two very different substances. They found out that the shape of a kingfisher’s beak was ideal for this situation. Their beaks were ideal because a kingfisher will dive into a body of water to catch a fish with very little splash.

Once they had copied the shape of the kingfisher’s beak, they modelled the front of the train from that design. Not only did this design result in a quieter train, it also made the train use 15% less electricity while travelling at a speed 10% faster than what it was originally designed for."

Suddenly now we are seeing a surge in all types of Biomimcry organizations claiming they've known all along about the benefits of designs found in nature, but they often refuse to disassociate themselves from the "Argument from Poor Design" dogma. When I've read some of the nature design celebratory articles published by the Biomimicry Institute and their author Janine Benyus, and asked this question aout past worldviews, all I ever get are 'cricket sounds.' Any time I've ever pressed any of the other so-called Biomimicry organizations about this same subject, they too simply refuse to respond. It would appear that deep down inside there is just a little bit of nostalgia for that old time religion. But that old time religion's days are numbered. The Earth can't handle their worldviews anymore. While there has been some push forward in a positive direction from the examples above, it's more than likely not enough. This respect for natural designs in nature should have been followed decades ago.Now for those who think I'm kidding or exaggerating about the degenerative side effects of pimping one worldview over another causing a serious infection within the Scientific Community, take real close look back at an old well known animated TV commercial from 1977 by Chevron promoting their Ortho agricultural division's products which were created & justified based on the religious blind faith concept of Nature being poorly designed until their industrial science White Lab Coats stepped in and saved the day. Seriously, pay real close attention to an example of their twisted worldview they had of nature back in the 1970s where they actually marketed to the public that Nature was completely inept at growing things and making the consumer wonder how life was even able function prior to these guys at ORTHO coming along and saving the day with their synthetic chemical wonders.

Those of us who are old enough to remember these worldview re-programming indoctrination infomercials saw this barage of propaganda day in and day out for a couple of decades. For many today the answer for correcting the mistakes of the past is unbridled angry Eco-Activism protesting everything and anything that they imagine to be offensive. But that isn't a viable answer either. I'm finding that eco-activism is turning more and more people off towards an ecological stewardship of the earth far more than it's converting the public to get on board. Why ??? Because we are now living in a time where people find it hip to promote themselves as overly sensitive and outraged at the drop of a hat. Any little news report item today that even remotely has the mere appearance of being out of place according under the new rules of definition shell gaming, must be watered down, because even if it's the glaring in your face factual indisputable Truth people still freak out. There are however many sincere ecology minded people who genuinely do care about the environment, but are paying the price for some of the people they've invited or have allowed to come on board their Cat Stevens "Peace Train" to fight the evil industrialists. Here's one glaring spotlight example below that's recently been in the News and caused incredible anarchy which has resulted in terrible ecological destruction.

Trust me, many of the Native Americans do not feel the same way about the white outsider protesters who took the initiative and invited themselves to the Dakota 'Burning Man Festival', I mean Standing Rock Pipeline Protest.